Video Transcript

MIKE OZ: Hey, it's Mike Oz with Yahoo Sports. This is the great Ryan Howard. We are going to open some old baseball cards.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[CRACK OF THE BAT]

- Up the middle. A base hit. First major league hit for Howard.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[CRACK OF THE BAT]

- And that ball is absolutely hammered.

[CHEERING]

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10 to 2.

RYAN HOWARD: The Phillies. I want to thank you guys, you know, for taking a kid fifth round, giving me the opportunity, and just this-- this city as a whole, man.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

MIKE OZ: Ryan, you are the new ambassador for the Scotts Field Refurbishment Program through Major League Baseball. Start there. Why is that important to you? Why is it something you're passionate about?

RYAN HOWARD: Well, it's important to be able to give the kids the opportunity to be able to get out, get their health and wellness, their well-being going, and to give them the opportunity to have these fields be refurbished to be able to go out and play these games and be able to have that opportunity to potentially create memories, lifetime childhood memories, like I was able to do as-- as a youth. And it gives these kids that opportunity to be able to go out there and play and do that.

MIKE OZ: I know you haven't been out of the game that long, but it seems like you've already-- TV, doing this. You did venture capital stuff. Seems like you're kind of all over the place.

RYAN HOWARD: All over. Yeah.

MIKE OZ: So are you enjoying the--

RYAN HOWARD: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

MIKE OZ: --post-baseball life?

RYAN HOWARD: And being-- and being dad as well. So yeah, man.

MIKE OZ: Oh, that's right.

RYAN HOWARD: So yeah, I'm-- I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it.

MIKE OZ: Dad's probably hardest, right? Like--

RYAN HOWARD: Oh man, believe it. Believe it.

[LAUGHTER]

MIKE OZ: So you've got some 1989 Topps. This is from when you were-- you were probably what, like 10?

RYAN HOWARD: Yeah. I was-- yeah, about to turn 10.

MIKE OZ: 10 years old. OK. We got some 2004 Topps. This is right where you're about to break into the big leagues. So open those up. Let's see what you got, and--

RYAN HOWARD: Let's see.

MIKE OZ: --and see what kind of stories and memories and whatnot come to mind.

RYAN HOWARD: All right. Make sure we don't-- make sure we don't lose that gum.

MIKE OZ: The gum-- the gum is all you if you want.

RYAN HOWARD: The gum-- the gum is official, yo.

MIKE OZ: You might need some teeth refurbishment afterwards.

RYAN HOWARD: The gum is official. This is official. So we've got a Mike Kingery.

MIKE OZ: I remember Mike Kingery.

RYAN HOWARD: Mike Kingery card here. Not bad. Not bad. Like the-- the old bring the knee in right there--

MIKE OZ: (LAUGHING) Yeah, right?

RYAN HOWARD: --to unload-- load-unload right there.

MIKE OZ: Right. Right.

RYAN HOWARD: Randy Ready. Oh wow.

MIKE OZ: I feel like he's from my hometown, I think. I feel like-- I think he's from--

RYAN HOWARD: Yeah, Randy Ready--

MIKE OZ: --Fremont, California.

RYAN HOWARD: --with the San Diego Padres. That was always a good one. That was always a good one.

MIKE OZ: Good Padres uniforms. Coming back this year, looking like that.

RYAN HOWARD: Yeah, I love those. Oh, we got doubles-- Mike Kingery.

MIKE OZ: (LAUGHING) Again. Two.

RYAN HOWARD: Yeah.

MIKE OZ: Two Mikes.

RYAN HOWARD: Mark Clear with the Milwaukee Brewers.

MIKE OZ: Got the good flow.

RYAN HOWARD: Yeah. That's some--

MIKE OZ: Mustache.

RYAN HOWARD: Let's-- Yeah. Let's not forget about that mustache.

MIKE OZ: (LAUGHING) That's--

RYAN HOWARD: That is-- that is a pivotal mustache.

MIKE OZ: He looks like he's trying to be like [INAUDIBLE], though, right? He's like--

RYAN HOWARD: Yeah. Yeah.

MIKE OZ: --that's my--

RYAN HOWARD: Yeah.

MIKE OZ: Like--

RYAN HOWARD: '89.

MIKE OZ: --that's my energy right now.

RYAN HOWARD: Great. Great.

MIKE OZ: Wow.

RYAN HOWARD: Here we go. Joe Carter with Indians right there.

MIKE OZ: I feel like that guy maybe hit a big home run. I can't remember for sure.

RYAN HOWARD: Yeah, it broke a lot of hearts in Philadelphia back in the '90s, Phillies, years later.

This was a guy, man, who, you know, I always rooted for. I loved watching him play. Who knew that, you know, obviously growing up and then winding up playing for the Phillies, it's like now you kind of have to keep the-- the history that was prior to. But this was always one of those guys that when I did get a chance to kind of watch people play, I loved watching him play.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Oh, Mitch Webster from the Cubs. Yeah. I mean, you always got to love the old cummerbund-type--

MIKE OZ: The band.

RYAN HOWARD: --yeah-- waistband right there. Those good old unis.

Neil Allen. Didn't really see Neil Allen growing up too much.

MIKE OZ: I feel like-- I feel like Neil Allen was like every '89 pitcher.